There were bands, there was sun, there were balloons, and there were announcers, there were little girls in tutus and tiny red-head boys in Canucks jerseys. There were clowns and dancers and they were all high-fiving as many of the thousands of runners as they could for a 10 kilometre long and windy road.
And then there was all of that training that we had done. It’s go time.
- Georgia and Bute: There they were - our families! They made it! The Big Hairs and the Long Hairs – the hungovers and the one in crutches – they suffered a parking fine and traffic to be there to hug us and when we hugged them back too hard and blathered “Thank you so much for coming out to cheer us on!” they shouted “Keep going, mom! Keep going!”
- The Lagoon: Dudes and Dudettes sitting all laid-back in camping chairs on the lawn in front of their apartment block, toasting their mimosas with grins of gratitude: “I ain’t doing that, but you go girl!”
- Beach Avenue: Runners down – medical teams crowding over not one, two, but three runners that we counted collapsed on the baking sidewalk.
- Pacific Avenue: Wendy Cellick blazing past us at the 4K mark in a throng of thousands splashing her lovely sweat onto our collar bones shouting “Looking sharp, ladies, looking sharp!”
- Steep Hill up Hornby towards the Burrard Street Bridge: Signs saying “Go Sun Runners!” and “You Thought It Said ‘Sun Rum’, didn’t you?”
- Georgia and Denman: Signs that said: “Go Mom, I know you can do it!”
- Across Burrard Bridge: Signs saying: “Go Auntie Tots!” and “Go Grandpa!” (which actually wasn’t that encouraging considering how we were feeling).
- Granville Island: The chick with the sign that said: “Go Random Strangers!”The tunnel: The huge black and white picture of Christopher Walken scowling, fierce and serious like he had a world-war watch up his ass, and the tag line that read: “No Time for Walken”.
- Cambie Bridge, the man in sun-glasses shaking his cow bell with a big wide smile and a sign that said: “This is the worst parade ever!”.
The Finish Line: The Big Hairs and the Long Hairs again – waving and cheering us in as we sprinted the final stretch. We collapsed into their arms, and they hugged us, and they congratulated us, and they asked us for candy. And we gave it to them. Tons of it!
I teared up when we passed the 9k mark… Why the crying? Was it because we’d received the text that the kids and the men were actually going to be at the finish line? Was it because it was almost over? Because I was proud of myself? Because it was fun? Because I was so, so, so, so tired?
“I cried at the 9k mark last year, too”, Suzy reassured. Running with Suzy was amazing. It is highly possible that she made her second best time, but this one with a sprained ankle. Ingha said that running with Fanella made her keep going when she wanted to stop. Becca was inspired by Seanna’s speed and strength throughout the training and Seanna was over the moon, until of course, her son left her in the dust.
Running has become fun, but at the end of the day, for me anyways, it’s the people.
There were a lot of people at the Sun Run this year.
And they were fun.
